Key
by SecondAlternateLieutenant
Summary: A small, gold colored, piece of metal doesn't really mean that much, does it? Well to someone who's never had that security, it does. This is smut with feels.


It was perfect.

He felt so damn clever for planning this surprise for her, even though she had a pretty good idea about what was going on and a vague idea of what was going on. Mako grinned as he walked up two flights of stairs and then pulled out a small gold colored piece of metal and slid it into the lock. He'd never considered how amazing that sound was before, but it was.

Because he'd never had a key to his own place before.

As a child, Mako had been his parent's charge, they took care of him, his mother made sure the door was locked when they left, and his father locked it at night. Living on the streets they didn't have anything close to a door, let alone a lock to be safe at night. When the triad gave them temporary housing, there was no lock to keep them from stealing or conspiring against them. Living in the attic of the arena there was no lock as it wasn't meant to be an apartment at all. Air Temple Island was very safe, it just had that feeling to it, but there was no way to lock their bedroom doors, and he shared it with Bolin anyway.

But this place. This place, this new apartment was his. His and Korra's names were on the lease, and the key was in his hand. He could unlock the door, walk in, lock it behind him and stare at the empty rooms that needed to be filled with furniture they didn't own. But it still pulled an insane grin on his face as he looked at the small, four room apartment.

The kitchen was a good size, that had been essential for him because he knew he'd be the one cooking and Korra always liked to hover around and watch him cook. Not to mention the little tidbits and snitches she'd always steal.

The bathroom was small, but they didn't need a big one for the two of them, it would work fine. Their bedroom was also fairly small, but it was big enough for a nice sized bed and a couple dressers or a wardrobe.

The living room was easily the biggest room of the apartment, and would be the one they spent the most time in, so it was a nice size. It'd be able to fit a couch and a big chair near the fireplace and they'd be able to have people over. Not many, but Asami and Bolin would be able to fit comfortably in the area with them.

Leaning against the door Mako just grinned at the empty space where he and Korra could start their married lives together. Preferably, they'd be able to live there together in the weeks before their wedding, but her parents would have none of that, and had already arrived from the Southern Water Tribe to help plan the wedding itself. They'd been there a week and it was already terrifying.

But tonight he was stealing her for a 'date' that would end up at this place.

She didn't know he'd signed the lease.

Mako pulled out his bag of tricks for the evening. The apartment was technically theirs, and he'd be moving in within a week, but for tonight he wanted it empty in order to plan a surprise for her. Korra had seen it with him, they'd looked into it, they'd agreed it was a great place that they'd both love to live in, and then her parents arrived and the plans nearly fell through until he just did it himself. He took out the dinner he'd created for her and spread it out in front of the fireplace on a blanket with the couple pillow's he'd grabbed. A few logs went into the fire to finish up his plan. He'd light it later.

Incredibly pleased with himself and the surprise for his fiancée, Mako slipped out and locked the door behind him before making his way back to Air Temple Island to find Korra. It took longer than expected to find her.

While Asami had moved off the Island years before, he and Bolin had stayed, not out of necessity, but out of proximity to a family until. Tenzin and Pema loved having them, and they were good staying. Until now, Mako and Korra were going to go get married and live in Republic City, so Bolin had decided to move off the island too. But right now people had flooded the place because of the impending wedding. It annoyed Tenzin and kept Pema on her feet, but Senna was trying her best to help Pema with meals while planning Korra's wedding.

Because Korra wasn't having any of it.

"Pema." Mako stepped into the kitchen with a smile. "Senna." He smiled at his future mother-in-law. "Is Korra around?"

"Hiding, I'm sure." Senna beamed at her son-in-law. Tonraq wasn't thrilled their little girl was getting married, to an orphan with no history, but Senna honestly was thrilled to welcome Mako into their family. "She's taken to the roof or the new arena."

"Thanks." Mako grinned and ducked back out to leave them be, knowing what it was like to cook for people, but maybe not that many people. He climbed out of the highest window on the building and crawled over the roof to see if his fiancée was up there.

"Stupid, girly… wedding… stupid."

He grinned at her grumbling and slipped as quietly as he could over to where she was sitting, just over a peak in the roof. She kept grumbling, nearly incoherently, about how stupid and girly weddings were, totally unaware he was with her until he was right behind her. "We can still elope."

"Ah!" Korra let out a short scream, only cut off by his hand over her mouth and him laughing as he tried to shush her. "You!" She pushed his one shoulder fairly hard and then gentler. "You snuck up on me."

"Not paying attention 'Almighty Avatar'?" Mako teased, grinning as she scowled at him.

"You're just quiet." Korra defended herself with a scowl. "I would've been able to fight you off." She insisted.

"Oh I know." Mako allowed, letting her rest in his arms as they both looked out at Yue Bay. "Everything ok?"

"I just want this wedding to be over with." Korra groaned and shook her head. "I'm sick of planning this thing, and my parents are suffocating me."

"Three weeks." Mako rubbed her shoulder. "In three weeks we'll be married and out of here on our own." He kissed the spot on her cheek just next to her nose, getting a grin from her. "Come on, I made you dinner in Republic City."

"Really?" Korra grinned as he pulled her up and they stood on the roof for a few seconds together. "Dinner away from here sounds fantastic."

"It is." Mako gave her a short kiss before pulling her to the edge of the roof and the two flipped off of it easily. He waited outside while Korra told her mother they were going to hang out for a few hours before she'd be home later in the night. Getting some fresh air, couple time, just the two of them. "Did it work?" Mako smiled as she came out bouncing.

"You bet your pretty butt it did." Korra grinned and grabbed his arm. "You do have a nice butt."

"Thanks." Mako laughed at her suggestive comments but on the inside he was feeling them. They hadn't been able to carve out time together nearly since they got engaged over six months ago. He was aching physically for her, but even if they could just be alone together for a few hours he'd be happy.

"Where are we going?" Korra grinned as they started for the dock, hand in hand.

"It's a surprise." Mako grinned and squeezed her hand in his. "Get us to Republic City and I'll take it from there."

"Done." Korra released his hand to start waterbending the water around their heads as they simply walked into the water and across the floor of the bay. They didn't go this way often, really only when they didn't want to bother with finding Naga or getting a Sky Bison or even the ship to sail back. Besides, it was good practice for Korra to waterbend.

Climbing up to the surface, Korra let Mako take her hand and lead her through the streets. She wasn't sure where they were going, and walking up to the apartment building, didn't remember being there nearly four months prior. "Get it yet?"

"No?" Korra frowned at him as he pulled a key out of his pocket and handed it to her. "Mako, who lives here?"

"Open it." He urged and she frowned before slowly inserting the key into the lock, turned it slowly until the latch clicked and pushed the door completely open.

The empty room and the picnic by the dead fireplace clicked into place as she saw the familiar room. "What?" Confused, she looked up at her fiancé as he pulled her into the apartment. "Mako?"

"I know you've been busy." Fear she'd get mad at him set in without warning. "And I know you loved this place, so I signed the lease with my name, you can add yours, so after the wedding we can live here."

"This is our place?" Korra looked pale in the darkness of the small hall light. Mako took a second to shoot a small flame at the fireplace to get it going and the flames shed light on her face, the room, and the small picnic he'd made.

"If you don't like it, I'll get out of it…" Mako frowned but Korra was shaking her head in his arms.

"No, no, thank you." Korra looped her arms around his neck. "I should be mad at you for doing this without me." She was smiling and shaking her head at him. "But with my parents and the wedding stuff, this is great, thank you."

Pleased she wasn't mad at him, and entirely pleased with himself for pulling this off, Mako pressed a soft kiss to her lips and lingered a little while before pulling her to the floor. They sat close together, wrapped up in a few different blankets while they ate the cold picnic. "I'm sorry the wedding is stressing you out." Mako murmured as he fed her a small bite.

"No, it'll be worth it." Korra shrugged after chewing, something Pema had drilled into her after a food spitting incident. "But I just want to get married."

"Me too." Mako tightened his arm around her waist and kissed her neck before popping some food into his mouth.

"You're going to have to steal me like this when the wedding gets closer, I can feel my mother starting to come up with things for me to do." Korra curled closer to him. "I still vote for eloping."

"And deprive Republic City of the wedding of the century?" Mako rolled his eyes at the headline their engagement had inspired. "I just want it to be over and come here with you." He admitted against her temple. Korra was quiet for a while, eating some bites and they stared at the fire.

"We need furniture, huh." She looked around the room while Mako was stuffing the empty food containers into his bag.

"A few things." He chuckled and tossed it to a corner. "Pretty much everything. I'll work on that though, I'm sure Bo and I could find some stuff. People are always giving away furniture."

"I'm fine with that." Korra smiled at him. They were both sitting on a blanket he was leaning to the left of the fireplace and she was facing him with her legs crossed and a grin on her face. "Just do me a favor."

"Yeah?" Mako sincerely hoped he liked where this was going.

"One of the first things I want you to get for us, is a bed." Korra leaned forward, the blanket over her shoulders slipping as she leaned on her hands toward her fiancé.

Mako grinned. "I'll agree to that." Korra smiled at the unfinished feeling to his sentence. "But we don't need one." He sealed his mouth over hers and reached for her waist. Korra leaned forward and pushed herself up on her knees for a better angle to kiss him. Mako laid a hand on either side of her waist while she moved closer and pulled her into his lap to kiss her.

It was nice to just be kissing her again, with all the madness going on in their lives, the chaste kisses they were able to sneak on Air Temple Island weren't entirely satisfying, so quenching their thirst for the other right now felt so good.

Except she was wearing too many clothes. Mako determined that while his hands were reaching up her back and trailing down, but the sensations were blocked by her shirt covering her body. He grabbed at the zipper under her hair and pulled it down slowly while her hands rested on the base of his neck and ran up into his hair. Impatient with the shirt, he pulled it down enough over one shoulder and kissed at the bare skin he'd uncovered, abandoning her lips while her hands moved to get the shirt off the rest of the way.

When it was finally off, Korra started at her wrappings for a second before getting impatient and tugging off his scarf and easily discarding it before pushing at his jacket. Mako pulled away enough to get his jacket off, giving her time to remove her wrappings and grab him before he tipped her over and laid her down on the soft blanket.

"You planned this." Korra accused breathlessly as she let him skim his palms down her sides and then up to cup her breasts.

"Yes, ma'am." Mako admitted easily before pressing his open mouth in the valley between her breasts. Korra let out a sigh of contentment. Her hands fell limply on his head, threading through his hair but not gripping it as he kissed her bare skin. It took her little time to push her hands at her own pants, pushing them off with her boots and leaving her in her waist wrappings only.

It took one nonverbal cue for him to push off his pants and throw off his undershirt, making sure they were close to the fire to stay warm, but their flesh was heated enough. It had been quite a while since they'd been able to find time to spend intimate time together, so there was a bit more haste than preferable, but neither seemed to be caring as they moved together. Mako put a hand on each of her hips as she moved to straddle him, leaning him against the pillows he'd brought earlier.

The loin cloth of her waist wrappings trailed over his legs as she rested her weight on his thighs, his hands on her hips to hold her close. Korra's hands skimmed lightly up his chest and then down over the hard planes, sighing when his lips left hers to kiss her collarbone and down her chest. Her head fell back as the sensations began to overwhelm her, but air on her hips brought her back. Somehow he'd managed to untie her waist wrappings and was trying to get them off. Korra lifted herself up to allow them off and grabbed at his. It took him a half second to remove those as well.

Finally down to their basic elements with each other, Korra lowered herself ever so slightly, positioning herself over him. Mako gave her an open mouthed kiss and groaned a little as she pressed the tip of him into her wet heat. His hands flew to her hips to steady her while her arms looped loosely around his neck. "I love you." Korra managed softly.

"I love you." Mako smiled up at her and pulled her hips a little and helped her sink completely down onto him. Korra gripped him a little tighter as she started to move, wincing at first until things loosened. It really had been much too long since they'd been together, but they were moving together like they'd never been apart in barely a breath. Korra felt herself start to tip toward the edge, but frowned when Mako rolled and pinned her to the floor. She didn't get a chance to express any annoyance at the chance because the moment he thrust again, the annoyance faded into pure sensations of pleasure.

The position had been awkward, and hard to work when Mako turned them over, but now, with a hand braced on one side of her head, he was able to move his hips better, using one hand to hitch her leg up on his thigh, his mouth occupying hers. Korra's hands grabbed his neck, unable to do anything but brace herself as she clenched around him. It took extreme self control to manage to get her to finish first, but hearing her moan into his mouth, break from her mouth and then cry out into the crook of his neck made him lose the little control and then release into her with his own, lower, cry.

"Oh." Korra groaned with a smile, turning so Mako could lay behind her. "I missed that."

"Me too." Mako pressed a hot kiss to the curve of her shoulder while pulling a blanket over them. "A few weeks and we'll be able to be together all the time." He promised softly, hooking his arm under hers while they both faced the warm fire.

"I can't wait." Korra smiled up at him. "You're moving in here though?"

"So I can get it ready for you." Mako murmured.

"I get a key though." She sighed, her entire body completely relaxed in his arms. "So I can visit."

"Of course." He had to smile at her. "You'll just get your key for when you move in."

"This is going to sound insane." Korra sighed, a smile on her face. "But I've never had a key before." The words echoed into his heart and he held her closer. "Someone always kept the key for me, my parents, the White Lotus, Tenzin, and now." She looked up at him. "Now we have our own place, our own keys."

In that moment, with the small similarity pointed out and her blue eyes shining hopefully up at him, Mako swore he fell a little bit more in love with her. "Our place." Mako murmured and smiled. Korra was dropping into sleep, unaware of the revelation he was having, unaware of how deeply her simple comment had affected him.

All because of a small key that meant so much more than just locking their door. It meant security, both in what would be their home and with each other. Maybe it was stupid symbolism, but it was meaningful, it was their new life.

Even in an empty apartment where they only had each other and a fire. That was all they needed.


End file.
